While this invention will be described with particular reference to filling sandbags, which are usually made of burlap or a woven plastic material, with sand, it will be appreciated that this invention may be used for many other applications in which it is desired to fill a fabric, plastic or paper bag with any number of different fluent materials such as, but not restricted to, dirt, soil, gravel, coal, cement, concrete mix, cereal grains such as wheat or corn, flour and sugar.
Sandbags are used in large quantities for a variety of applications, such as temporary flood dykes in flood control situations, in the construction of military fortifications for the protection of personnel and equipment, in the protection of pipes and pipelines in trenches, in the prevention of hillside erosion, and in the containment of environmentally damaging spills of oil and the like. Sandbags may also be used to remove contaminated soils and the like from a contaminated site for safe disposal. Sandbags are also frequently used as weights to hold down road signs and the like.
The conventional method of filling a sandbag with sand is manually employing three people, one to hold the mouth of the bag open at a convenient height to receive the sand, the second to lift shovelfuls of sand into the open mouth of the bag, and the third to remove the filled bag, tie the mouth of the bag and move it to the required site or to a pallet or the like for further transportation. The three workers rotate through all three jobs in order to reduce fatigue. This practice is time consuming, uses manpower inefficiently, results in considerable fatigue for all workers and presents considerable safety hazards related to back injuries and injuries to the hands of the person holding the bags during filling.
Numerous alternative methods for filling sandbags have been described in the art, Lum disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 121529 of 1871 a funnel system and a stand to support a bag during the filling process, for use primarily in filling grain bags. Lum's did not, however, address issues such as portability, use on uneven terrain, or effective use of manpower. U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,085 issued Mar. 14, 1995 to Spagnalo describes a portable sandbag filling device comprising a hoop member, supported by a frame, into which a bag to be filled can be inserted and the top thereof turned over. The turned over top is secured by a second, concentric, hoop having an arcuate fill-chute member extending upwardly therefrom. This arrangement effectively holds the bag open for filling but removal of the filled bag is slow and cumbersome because the second concentric hoop must be removed first, and insertion of an empty bag is time consuming. A somewhat similar portable arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,597,145 issued Jan. 28, 1997 to Meyers et al. in which a sandbag support section is supported on a plurality of legs. The top of the bag is turned over the top of the support and held in place with a plurality of clips. No fill chute is provided. Removal of the filled bag is cumbersome and time consuming. Static hopper arrangements for use in filling sandbags are described in numerous patents of which U.S. Pat. No. 5,417,261 issued May. 23, 1995 to Kanzler et al. and 5,215,127 issued Jan. 1, 1993 to Bergeron may be considered illustrative. In both of these patents particulate materials, such as sand, are fed to one or more hoppers and thence to a discharge chute beneath which a bag may be held for filling. Neither of these devices, however, is light enough to be carried by a single person and hence cannot easily be used in the field and away from a road.
Usually large quantities of sandbags are required for applications such as flooding, military fortifications and pipeline support. They are invariably required quickly, and in emergency situations which often occur in the field, they are often needed at remote sites and on variable terrain. In such situations, however, there is usually an abundance of manual labour readily available.